In the comics Donald Duck's twin sister, Della, sent her triplet sons to their uncle's house for a visit with a letter that read,

"Dear Donald:
I am sending your angel nephews Louie, Huey and Dewey, to stay with you while their father is in the hospital. A giant firecracker exploded under his chair.* The little darlings are so playful. I hope you enjoy them.
Your cousin,
Della."

(* a stunt they seem to have repeated in WDC&S #349 against the braggart Prof. Pulpheart Clabberhead).

Of course Della was eventually revealed to actually be Donald's sister and a shortened version of Dumbella, but we are never told why the Nephews have not returned home or what eventually became of their parents. One would assume that perhaps the three ducklings were abandoned to their irascible uncle, whom they relished to torture. Over time they became less burdensome to Donald, who grew to love them as their own father. For a spell Donald entered into the Navy and left the Nephews in the care of his own miserly Uncle $crooge McDuck. Upon his discharge from military service he reclaimed the trio and is seen still caring for them well into their teens. The Nephews are devout members of the scouting organization called Junior Woodchucks, under the leadership of the mighty Scout Master (whose true name is never given, but often goes by an extreme acronym like "The Great B.E.L.L.E.R.I.N.G. B.U.L.L.N.E.C.K." - which is an acronym for Bellicose Expediter of Limitless Lionization, Esteem, Reverence, and Indefatigable, Never-Dying Gung-Ho, as well as Bedeviller of Unskillful, Lunkheaded, Lallygaggers and Nemesis of Extemporizing Campground Know-Nothings). The arch-nemeses of the Jr. Woodchucks are the all-girl scout group usually called the Littlest Chickadees (a.k.a. Junior Chickadee Patrol), lead by broad-shouldered ex-WAC Captain Ramrod. Under her leadership the girls rarely loose in competitions with the Woodchucks. Daisy Duck's own nieces, April, May & June, are members of the Chickadees. Webby, in at least one episode of "Ducktales" ("Merit Time Adventure") purports that she is a member of the Woodchucks, rather than the Chickadees. Occasionally Launchpad McQuack and Donald have lead the Woodchucks on their camping expeditions. As a result of one of Prof. Ludwig von Drakes' experiments gone awry in "Quack Pack," the Nephews gained superpowers, which they have used at least twice, calling themselves Captain Muscles (Louie - super strong and malleable), Brain Boy (Dewey - super smart ) and The Really Incredibly Fast Guy (Huey - super fast), collectively known as the T-Squad (The Tremendously Talented Trio of Truly Trusted Troubleshooters Squad).

HISTORICAL FACTS:

In their original presentation, by writer Ted Osborne and Artist Al Taliaferro, the three Nephews were indistinguishable, and were created to act as "one" character (often reflecting this when one nephew would start a sentence and the other two would complete it as if they only had one brain among them). Besides the Red/Blue/Green sweater colors, they often wore Yellow, Orange, Purple or even all Black combinations. After some time, and several other artists and writers began using them in comics, a clearer distinction was made: Huey wore Red, Dewey wore Blue and Louie wore Green, and occasionally they had the first letter of their names knitted on their sweaters. This was later emphasized in "DuckTales" where they were specifically noted by their sweater color. Dave Smith, Disney's Archivist, in "Disney A to Z" said, "Note that the brightest hue of the three (Huey), the color of water, dew, is blue (Dewey), and that leaves Louie, and leaves are green." These distinctions are drawn even clearer in the 1996 series "Quack Pack" where even personality traits that were only hinted at before are now strengthened.

LITTLE KNOWN SECRETS:

The names of the Nephews were originally inspired by contemporary political figures Huey P. Long of Louisiana, Thomas E. Dewey of New York and Louie Schmidt (a friend of a Disney artist).The Nephews' full names were finally revealed in the new series "Quack Pack" as Huebert (Huey), Deuteronomy (Dewey), and Louis (Louie) Duck. In at least seven different comic book story panels a mysterious Fourth Nephew has appeared along with the other three and then disappeared in the succeeding panel. Fans have dubbed this unknown nephew as "Phooey" who, in reality does not exist and is a mistake by the artists involved. It has been suggested, though I can't find a specific source, that the concept of Donald's Nephews was patterned after another popular and, then, contemporary cartoon character Popeye's own triplet nephews, who also were indistinguishable and also completed eachother's sentences and were also treated as a singular character in the cartoons which they appeared.

WORKING THEORIES:

[?] Della and the boys' father, were run so ragged by the mischievous trio and their dangerous antics, that they basically dumped the Nephews into Donald's lap and fled. Perhaps Donald's own hot-headed, short-fused temperament proved to be the one influence that actually tempered the boys over the years.